Chapter 102
Part 16
“I gave no parental attention or affection to any of my offspring. I have no emotional inclination to do so,
and it would only have made them a target for dominance and maniption by those who sought
influence with me. I had nned to continue that policy in regards to you, but I was confident that you
would quickly rise through the ranks on your own merit.
“I had nned that when you became First me; which was second-inmand in my power
structure, I would either kill you in order to eliminate the only true contender for my power, or take you
under my wing as my protégé, and be your mentor in order to ensure the continuation of my
efforts in case I should fall to the demons. I would have taken a deep Reading of you in order to judge
your loyalty, and based my decision on the result.
“Beyond that, I gave the matter no further thought until you arrived here today. And now my ns are
moot. But I find that meeting you and speaking to you gives me a feeling of… pride, I think. As well,
though it may have been happenstance, your visit here today has led to my meeting and gaining the
sponsorship of Holy Amirgath, and that is the finest treasure I have ever received.
“I am not offering to act as your parent, and I am certain that you do not wish it in any case. But if you
wish to meet and speak again, I would wee that. I am always here. Until the tournament, that is.”
“Huh. Perhaps I will, some time.” Karz allowed. “After the tournament.”
He paused and puffed a bit of ck smoke before he continued. “It is not ttering to know that I was
conceived as a research experiment, but it is better than thinking that I was the result of some
nefarious machination of yours.
“Come what may, I am certain we will meet again soon, due to the tournament and the uing war.
Fare well until then.”
Zarkog gave him a respectful nod, which was returned. Val and the twins gave another bow, then the
four youngsters ended their Simcrums.
Falgaroth considered Zarkog. “You’reing along well enough.” he judged, and disappeared.
“Zarkog.” Quewanak nodded.
“Quewanak.” Zarkog nodded in return. “I am not surprised to learn that you have Ascended. You
reached the eldest age ever attained by any Draconian mortal, and six of the previous eldest nine
became gods. I expect that I will also Ascend soon, within ten years at most.”
“I agree. And as Zwak said, your astronomies have shown us that all of Keran is ying in a greater
game now. It is a new age. We will let the past be the past.”
“I agree.” Zarkog nodded, and gave him the bow to a military superior.
Quewanak knew that it was as close to an apology as he was ever going to get from Zarkog. So he
returned the bow, and disappeared.
Alone with his new student, Amirgath considered Zarkog for a moment before he spoke. “We have both
changed a great deal since taking the vow of justice on Falgaroth’s stone. But there is no reason for us
to be any less for it.”
“I agree, Lord. I have been concentrating on astronomy and biding my time since my recent fall, but this
tournament presents a most unexpected opportunity.”
“It does. And though I have offered you my friendship, know that I have offered to help you for the sake
of my Draconian pride. If one mortal is to rule all of Keran, I prefer that it be one of us, and you are
still the most capable dragon. If you thought I chose to help you for more personal or sentimental
reasons, I am sorry to disappoint you. My friendship is sincere, but that has nothing to do with making
you ruler of Keran.”
“On the contrary, my Lord. Choosing a potential ruler for Keran should never be left to sentiment, and
I deeply dislike every instance of the emotion. To the strong goes the prize, now as always. Let the
sentimentalfort the weak.”
“Excellent.” the eldest of the dragon gods dered with the Draconian equivalent of a grin. “Then we
begin…
PART 17
The four young Governors emerged from Translocation in the earliest childhood home Karz
remembered; The Lair of The Lord Regent. The actual den they arrived in was Povon and Kragorram’s
home in Serminak, but it was only a small part of theplex that was The Lair, which included the
smallerplex that was The Lair of The Prince of Serminaki Draconia, where Kragorram and his staff
attended to his governmental responsibilities. The offices of The Prince of The Sylvan Nation were also
housed here.
All of it had been excavated and constructed out of the mountain of g and rubble that had once been
Zarkog’sir, before the recent war. The entire instation was the product of Kragorram’s engineering,
Povon’s décor design, and theirbined architecture. They had insisted it be so, in order to ‘put their
mark on things’.
“Wow, nice ce!” Firemented after taking a look around. Though built to dragons’ huge
dimensions, it seemed far more a pce than a den; with huge straight-walled rooms, doors that
opened and closed onmand, and fine furniture sized and shaped for those of every race scattered
about in odd groupings, some of which sat on shelves on the walls that were essed by stairways
and ramps with no handrails. It was predominantly white marble with red streaks, ented with orange
marble with ck streaks. The furniture was mostly Elven Redwood, grown into shape and padded
with upholstery cushions adorned with magnificent embroideries and tapestries of scenery and
cityscapes from all over Serminak.
They sent their parents a quick psionic note saying where they were, and asking to meet them there
when it was convenient.
All five of their parents appeared less than half a minuteter.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, my son.” Povon told Karz with a grin and a quick hug, which seemed like a
strange mannerism for dragons, but they both obviously enjoyed the embrace.
“Don’t be silly, Mother.” Karz chuckled. “We know you’re all busy now that you’re out in the world again,
Please check at N/?vel(D)rama.Org.
and it was only five breaths anyway. You could have taken hours if you wanted. We’d have gotten
started without you.”
“Oh I’m sure you would have, and while I do trust you, my love, I think I’d like to be able to keep an eye
on you while youpletely disrupt and rebuild the entire social order of my continent!” Povon
pleasantly retorted.
“Fine work on the Punishment Cube spells, by the way.” Mark grinned as he scooped his daughters up
in his arms and gave them each a kiss on the cheek. “I really am incredibly impressed.”
“It must be a veryplex spell-set.” Alilia smiled as she gave Six a quick hug. “How many spells are
in it?”
“Two thousand, seven hundred and six.” Val proudly announced. “In up to sixyers. That is, sub-spells
of sub-spells, up to sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-spells. Plus of course there’s two thousand, seven hundred
and six fail-safes, one for each of the functional spells. If even one sub-spell doesn’t work right, its fail-
safe will turn the whole thing off and alert us. That’s to make it tamper-proof, mostly. I wouldn’t use that
many fail-safes just to be sure of the spells.”
“Is this a secure facility?” Six asked as the group ambled over to the nearest grouping of furniture.
“That is, can anyone overhear us right now?”
“The possibility is extremely remote, though of course it always exists.” Povon conceded. “And of
course, none of us can be sure if we can maintain an effective Privacy Shield against the gods, so they
might always be listening. We can block them from our minds, if we use enough power, thanks to
Quewanak’s psionic techniques. But we’re not sure if we could effectively protect an entire facility like
this that way.”
“We can’t even be sure if we can block them from our minds.” Fire insisted. “For one thing, there’s gods
of every race, including most if not all of the hidden races, and we don’t even know what all of those
races are yet. Who knows what their gods can do? Not to mention that gods are as unique and
individual as mortals are, we sure learned that today. Quewanak and Amirgath are both dragon gods,
but they might as well be different races for how different they are, and their capabilities are just as
different. That’s obvious even without Reading them.”